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Show WcteMfer. May 7. W The Dailr Dtaa CHRONICLE 3 51 Ute Hardballers Put on Show for Flaccid Big Dog Has His Day: Jazz Nip Lakers Crowds Rick Vezquez Chronicle GRTS erful game should take your breath away. Usually, it looks scripted and segmented, like one long, repetitive highlight reel GREG BEACHAM Chronide Sports Editor NBA basketball usually lets you down. The greatest athletes on this planet engaged in its most fluid, pow- - Sports Not last night. Antoinc Carr's two free throws with 2.1 seconds left, his only points of the vic night, gave die UtahJazz a 103-10- 1 tory over the Los Angeles Lakers and lead in their Western Conference a semifinal series. More miraculously, the Jazz and the Lakers brought passion and flair to the court on Tucsday-a- nd they gave a basketball recital for a national audience, But not without controversy. With 2-- 0 Writer I of my dass-c- s the other day, listening to one of my professors droning on in a monotone voice about this theory and that and supply and demand and die meaning of life and blah blah blah blah blaL As I was staring aimlessly into the distance with a blank, stoned expression on my lace, a guy sitting next to me turned and asked if I'm a sports writer for the Was sitting in one tr Happy to break the monotony, I turned and started a conversation. As our professor kept on blabbering in the background, we had a pretty fluid dmekilling talk which drifted from the Jazz to the Knicks to eoonomks to bascbalL Ute bascbaL I mentioned how the Utcs wax having their best season ever. I mentioned how Utah centcr-neld-- foul-shootin- g h g game. In the first half, O'Neal was the Laker offense with help from a continually Byron Scott and the 3 point marksmanship of Robert Horry. The former Rocket took and made five shots in the half, all of them wide-ope- n er Casey Child b making of the e Year. I mentioned how they were one win away from clinching their r division championship. "Really?" the guy replied. didn't know that" Suddenly, I had a hollow, gutless feeling in my stomach. Visions of a triples. "We just couldn't find Horry in the first half," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "Every time we thought we had him, he got away again." first-eve- 1 Utah's offense was equal parts sis' :X Huntsman Center during the Runnin' Utcs' final game against Tulsa flashed through my head. I ZtVfS n 'j became really irritated. . I suppose I could' vc punched this guy. The professor was totally enthralled by die sound of his own voice and probably wouldn't have noticed. Still, this guy was see "Vazquez" m page 10 grind from Malone, and penetration from Stockton and technical foul Jeff Hornacek-a- nd shots. The Lakers committed four illegal defense technicals in the first half, and none was a contested call. In fact, the half would have been tense but a bit boring if not for the antics of officials Nies, Hue Hoilins and Jim Clark, who kept the Ddta Center faithful in continual uproar with their imaginative and seemingly arbitrary calls. Both teams took serious issue with the officiating both during and after the game. Midway through the second quarter, Horry buried three 3 pointers in a span of 1:49, and the Lakers led 4441. Utah took die lead back immediatdy and went to the locker room up O'Neal and Scott scored 19 of Los Angeles's first 27 points, and the two combined with Horry to score 44 of the Lakers' halftime total of 55. The Jazz made a quick run to open the second half, and when O'Neal . picked up two personal fouls on the same possession at the 10:31 mark, . the Lakers changed their approach-a- nd it worked. With Horry and Scott now the primary options, Los Angeles opened up the court to show Los its decisive athletic advantage over jump-shootin-g non-sold-o- bigger than me and probably could' ve beat me to a bothering V pulp. I bit my tongue. Still, I could not help thinking to myself about what an apathetic, lazy, unsupportive student body we have. The Ute hardballers in die middle of their best season in school history, blasting homers out by the ctazens, setting all kinds of school records, and they still can't draw an average crowd of more than 300 to a game at luxurious Franklin Criest Field. Ridiculous. Earlier this season, Utah entered into a three-gam- e set with BYU down at Franklin Quest. The series had huge tide implications, and featured two of the WACs best pitchers: Jeff Stone for the Cougars and Rick Qaggctt for the Utcs. You couldn't have asked for a more perfect matchup. The Utcs drew decent crowds for the first two games of the series. In the third, they broke their all time attendance mark by . drawing over 4,000. That would be great if not (or a few minor things. Sinclair Gasoline Go. gave out dose to 60,000 tickets for the scries. Only about 8,000 (about half of which were BYU fans who drove up from Provo) cashed in he was whacked solidly and firmly on the left forearm by Karl Malone. And yet there were only cheers where a whistle should have been. The Jazz sprinted off the court. The Laker bench went for their concealed weapons. Coach Dd Harris appeared ready to fight referee Jack Nies, but die grayshirts made it off the court before a fracas could ensue. In the Laker locker room after the game, the entire team refused to speak to the media. Van Exd hung a sign, written in pink magic marker on e-ruled paper, over his locker: "Nothing personal, just no comment." Yes, the sideshows were almost as rK" rpnfrr rmff at ntrtatnmir Delta Center last night Shaquille O'Neal rebounded from a subpar Game 1 performance with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Soil, O'Neal's and shooting, five turnovers left die Diesel tram-higopen to criticism of his kaped-a- nd colleg- Ommde. for WAG Player to play, Nick Van Exel ball the Just over midcourt caught and attempted to turn and shoot. His way was blocked by John Stockton, so he turned die other way and 2.1 seconds Urcv xVx 1 , 59-5- action earlier this year. Utah topped daring Bryon Russell give Derek Fisher the business 2-Conference semifinal series. Western lead take a in their 1 to Tuesday night Angeles Jazz-Lake- 103-10- rs 0 U. Trade Team Gears Up BRANDON WINN Chronide Sports Writer How's this for a twist? The University of Utah's own track meet, die one they've hosted for yean, will take place tonight at 6 p.m., but not where a person would think. The University of Utah to Host Invitational Invitational will be held at Weber State. They just put in a new track and we want to showcase it," explained Ute coach Mike Jones. The track has to be a far cry from the Utcs home turf of East High but still, isn't it still the Utesv meet? Can't Weber have its own meet instead of stealing Utah's only home action of the season? Oh, in another related twist, the ; ; track meet that was supposed to be at Utah but was moved to Weber, it isn't really a track meet Instead of having time trials and qualifying and all that good junk, coaches can enter anybody they want in any event without having them qualify. There will be only single takes in every event, with the 3,000 and 5,000 meters being complctdy eliminated The idea is that folks will get Nee "Jus" on page Q in Ogden exdtcd and come out to the meet because the boring qualifying heats are being skipped over. Like people in Ogden have nothing better to do; oh wait, they don't, The Utes will only be bussing their women's team up for competition. The meet begins at 6 p.m.," with the exception of the weight-tos- s event which will 4:45 at begin p.m. because of concerns. safety . |